9 times out of 10, Script Extenders stop working when Bathesta updates the game--which they'll probably do a lot considering how new the game is--Script Extenders stop working and need updates. said updates usually come quickly, but it's still a pain. Sure, give it a year and I'll be using script extenders, but between now and December-ish, you couldn't PAY me to use a script extender (not for anything that'll stick to my save file anyways: some stuff can be easily removed mid-playthrough)
Vortex added this method as I expected, but they dropped it right afterwards. There's a problem for onedrive users backing up "Documents", as it'll then back up the entire starfield data folder, ouch. It'd be neat if Google Drive / OneDrive let you exclude folders from backup, wouldn't it? But that wouldn't drive storage space sales, no sirree.
I've got replacement hi-viz magazines and LUTs working fine. Presumably the link is in wrong place or points to a wrong place. You still have to have Starfield custom ini in the my games/Starfield folder, technically you could replace thst with a file link as well.
Steam doesn't have "content" folder, so it would be C:\Steam\steamapps\common\Starfield\Data The content folder is a Game Pass thing.
I uploaded a new version of the script that you run from the starfield install dir (where starfield.exe lives) that doesn't need any edits which avoids these problems.
It will fall over if there is "data" folder in "My Games\Starfield", though. So rename/move/delete it as appropriate first.
So, you got the new batch file in the same folder as starfield.exe? And you renamed or deleted data folder in documents\my games\starfield ? Does it say it created the junction OK when you double click on the bat file?
Do you have starfieldcustom.ini in documents\my games\starfield that includes the couple of lines mentioned in the description?
Oh im such a dumbass - had it in the docus folder. ffs lol. I'll give it a go in the right place when i reinstall, one 'performance fix' too many borked performance to unplayable lol.
OK at last its working, did it manually, textures are showing up now - nice one.
I'm assuming this only makes specific folders load in my games? Cause certain things like interface files and ba2's only load from the main game folder. And is it a hardlink, or a junction? I used Shell Link Extension and made a junction which was the easiest way as it would automatically link any files added/removed to the my games folder, so it was one and done. I still prefer the SFSE solution now that it's out, but this will work for some people at least.
Whether it's hardlink or junction should not matter (since AFAIK those only matters when accessing links over the network, not locally).
If you are already knowledgeable about symlinks enough to ask this question, I suggest you simply download the mod and look at the .bat yourself. If you know more than me (I'm far from fully understanding HOW these links work) you might want to choose your own solution, since the idea is very simple (I use symlinks to fake stuff that games or programs write to %appdata%, like SAVEGAMES - I want that s#*! in a safe, non-system partition in case of emergency OS reinstall).
I am not that knowledgeable about them which is why I used a program to set mine up. From what I understand about a hardlink, it's for setting specific files to be faked over to the other directory, while the junction is for doing that for folders themselves. So my understanding is when adding new files, you'd need to recreate the hardlink. I just know a symlink, hardlink, and junction are different so when I see wording saying it's one that from my understanding won't work as well, I ask to clarify.
And after a quick search, only regular symlinks do networking stuff.
I've been using links for years to create "cloud saves" for games that do not have any cloud saves. Just move the save game folder to google drive or whatever and create a link in the original location and now your save games are available on multiple computers with file history.
This worked even before "cloud saves" became a thing.
Q: Why use your fix rather than X fix? A: It's about options and preference. Use whatever fix method you want. No one is forcing you to use this and it has no negative impact on the game. Just don't be that person that wants to spam my post section about how it is not needed and to use "x" instead.That does not help players who want to use this method.
The advantage of using my batch file is that it's really simple and doesn't try to be clever, so it's easy to understand what it does and why. Crypton goes to great lengths to handle possible complications and skip the step of copying existing data folder in one-click method, but his script is much more complicated.
I bare-facedly stole his ideas of running the batch file from starfield install folder and using junction instead of a symlink, though. No need to edit the batch file or run it in admin mode this way.
The idea is nice, and yes there are other ways to achieve this, one of which hasn't been mentioned yet.
Since EVERYONE will (have to) edit their StarfieldCustom.ini anyway, add / expand your existing General and Display sections: [General] bEnableMessageOfTheDay=0 [Display] ## change photo mode target dir to Documents\My Games\Starfield\Photos, also to change textures directory sPhotoModeFolder=Photos
Afterwards, go to Documents\My Games\Starfield (datadir). Move all textures, meshes, strings, whatever from (datadir)\Data to \steamapps\common\Starfield\Data (gamedir). If you have screenshots, move them to (datadir)\Photos. Create the directory if it doesn't exist. The only content left in (datadir) should be the Motd_whatever directory. Delete the whole Data directory from (datadir). Place all future mods into (gamedir). Done.
Bethesda/Starfield moved the bulk of the "texture mods" to the "Documents" or "My Games" folder instead of the traditional Data folder in the game directory. This just puts the "old way" back in to practice.
For me, for example, my windows partition isn't the same as the partition where starfield is installed, and the windows partition is much smaller, thus making texture mods a problem if I have to install them on my documents.
ho i was wondering why some texture mod was working and some didn't, the one working was bsa, the one not working was loose files, i had everything in the main game folder but thanks to you i moved them to the mygames folder and now it works :D
(yeah not what you intended me to do, i'm too lazy to create a symlink, i don't care to have a bit of everything everywhere, but you solved a big issue to me so thanks anyway :D )
Riiiiight. I am guessing Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, Fallout 4, Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim are not Bethesda games? Mod Organizer and Mod Organizer 2 used symlinks just fine. If you are having difficulty with it, you either have a corrupt Windows install, a corrupt file table, broken symlink library(ies) in Linux or you just plain did something wrong. Symbolic linking has been around since Windows 7 and Gamebryo and the Creation Engine worked just fine with it. Performance can also be gained by ensuring you are using an SSD or similar/faster storage device over HDD (platter drives). This is bad information and misguided.
Bruh, the whole idea behing ModOrganizer 2 or Vortex is about using symlinks. This is not about how the game engine understands it, it's more about how a partition's file system handles files written to it (not every file system works with symlinks and you can't for example create hardlinks across different partitions).
42 comments
Get off your high horse.
And FWIW I use SFSE. No need for this type of attitude.
Sure, give it a year and I'll be using script extenders, but between now and December-ish, you couldn't PAY me to use a script extender (not for anything that'll stick to my save file anyways: some stuff can be easily removed mid-playthrough)
The content folder is a Game Pass thing.
I uploaded a new version of the script that you run from the starfield install dir (where starfield.exe lives) that doesn't need any edits which avoids these problems.
It will fall over if there is "data" folder in "My Games\Starfield", though. So rename/move/delete it as appropriate first.
Does it say it created the junction OK when you double click on the bat file?
Do you have starfieldcustom.ini in documents\my games\starfield that includes the couple of lines mentioned in the description?
OK at last its working, did it manually, textures are showing up now - nice one.
And is it a hardlink, or a junction? I used Shell Link Extension and made a junction which was the easiest way as it would automatically link any files added/removed to the my games folder, so it was one and done.
I still prefer the SFSE solution now that it's out, but this will work for some people at least.
If you are already knowledgeable about symlinks enough to ask this question, I suggest you simply download the mod and look at the .bat yourself. If you know more than me (I'm far from fully understanding HOW these links work) you might want to choose your own solution, since the idea is very simple (I use symlinks to fake stuff that games or programs write to %appdata%, like SAVEGAMES - I want that s#*! in a safe, non-system partition in case of emergency OS reinstall).
I just know a symlink, hardlink, and junction are different so when I see wording saying it's one that from my understanding won't work as well, I ask to clarify.
And after a quick search, only regular symlinks do networking stuff.
This worked even before "cloud saves" became a thing.
The advantage of using my batch file is that it's really simple and doesn't try to be clever, so it's easy to understand what it does and why. Crypton goes to great lengths to handle possible complications and skip the step of copying existing data folder in one-click method, but his script is much more complicated.
I bare-facedly stole his ideas of running the batch file from starfield install folder and using junction instead of a symlink, though. No need to edit the batch file or run it in admin mode this way.
Since EVERYONE will (have to) edit their StarfieldCustom.ini anyway, add / expand your existing General and Display sections:
[General]
bEnableMessageOfTheDay=0
[Display]
## change photo mode target dir to Documents\My Games\Starfield\Photos, also to change textures directory
sPhotoModeFolder=Photos
Afterwards, go to Documents\My Games\Starfield (datadir).
Move all textures, meshes, strings, whatever from (datadir)\Data to \steamapps\common\Starfield\Data (gamedir).
If you have screenshots, move them to (datadir)\Photos. Create the directory if it doesn't exist.
The only content left in (datadir) should be the Motd_whatever directory.
Delete the whole Data directory from (datadir).
Place all future mods into (gamedir).
Done.
(yeah not what you intended me to do, i'm too lazy to create a symlink, i don't care to have a bit of everything everywhere, but you solved a big issue to me so thanks anyway :D )
This is bad information and misguided.
This is not about how the game engine understands it, it's more about how a partition's file system handles files written to it (not every file system works with symlinks and you can't for example create hardlinks across different partitions).